How to take your TV with you, if you travel abroad?

Everybody in the UK is addicted to the telly, every single person. Sometimes, alas, people need to travel out of the UK, for whatever reason, and the idea of missing out on their favourite TV shows is unbearable. Okay, I am exaggerating, but if you are not in the UK and would like to watch TV programs, moreover, if you are not from the US and would like to stream something from Netflix or Hulu, you are not going to get it. Even some YouTube videos are for some unfathomable reason location locked, which poses really one question: Why do you make a promotional video, if you are not going to show it to people? Anyway, to overcome such inconveniences there is a solution – use a VPN. If you do not know what VPN is standing in for, it is a Virtual Private Network.

What such an app does, a VPN providing app, by funnelling your internet traffic through a (secure) server in a country of your choice, you can actually access any such sites that are location locked through a server that is located in the very same country. To make this story short, the app of choice is VPN One Click (http://www.vpnoneclick.com/download/index.html) and allows you on any platform – Windows, Android, Ubuntu and even Apple OSX/iOS – any Apple device, but the Apple app is not free – to connect to a sever in a country of your choice by a single click. There are currently servers in 19 countries, but you can connect to them from everywhere, even from China. I just tested the Android and iOS versions, both work commendably.

First of all, if you were looking for a way to circumvent the Piratebay blockage, this most certainly works. Second of all, you can connect directly to any site where live broadcast is streamed, such as the BBC iPlayer or the itv-player, but you can also connect directly to Hulu, Netflix and any other site, by choosing the appropriate server, and enjoy otherwise location locked content. If you do not want the hassle of looking for sites broadcasting UK channels, simply use the app TVCatchup (http://tvcatchup.com/) and stream away. Make sure your VPN sever is in the UK.

When speaking about best TV applications, then there is nothing that can parallel the extensive streaming amount of TV series and movies that are available per TV Portal app, sorry folks, only on Android! (http://tvportalapp.com/) Actually, most of the borderline legal apps are only available on Android, come to think of it. In any case, with this fun app, downloadable only through the SlideMe Android Market (www.slideme.org)I have already mentioned in a previous post (http://goo.gl/Y5Rgk).

What is so great about it? Every single episode of almost any TV show is being streamed! You want all 11 seasons of “Married with Children”? It is right there! You can watch it anytime! Or you would like to catch up on older episodes of “How I Met Your Mother”? No problem! You are looking for older shows like “ALF” or “Miami Vice”? All there. Even cult favorites like “Firefly” and plenty of cartoons, like “The Flintstones” or “Tom and Jerry” are there.

As if such a ton of fun at your fingertips were not enough, there is also a movie section, featuring thousands of movies, starting with the first “Captain America: The First Avenger” movie, down to classics such as “Some Like it Hot”. You will not be able to find a better TV series and movie streaming app, aside from Netflix – for which you have to pay a nice dollar or quid and still not find the one or another obscure title you can find within the TV Portal. Just give it a try and see for yourself.